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A common annoyer in previous generations, Dunsparce is like a trolling machine, due to Serene Grace + Headbutt/Rock Slide. It also has three Paralysis-inducing moves in Thunder Wave, Glare, and Body Slam. Slap in reliable recovery in Roost, and you are staring down a paraflinch monster. So why is this in NU? Simple: Bar HP, its stats are mediocre, not passing base 70, making it horribly outclassed in upper tiers by Togekiss and Jirachi. It still shines in NU though, and can be effective there.

Copied from smogon with more options! Yay. Glare is helpful in paralysing Golurk, but Body Slam gives STAB. As for the flinch move of choice, Rock Slide is da way to go, but Headbutt if you want. And Bite... if you want to be hipster. Coil gives you more bulk and helps in genearl, roost = hp back.

Glare Paralyzes any type, but at 70% accuracy, you'll be missing... a lot. Thunder Wave is more reliable, but you lose out on ground types. Body Slam with Serene Grace has a 60% chance of paralysis, but ghosts are immune. Headbutt is STAB with massive flinching hax. Bite is needed for flinching ghosts. Rock Slide can give more flinch coverage, but Roost can be viable as well for Dunsparce's good HP stat.

Other Options:Substitute- Goes well with RoostZen Headbutt- More flinch coverageCurse-For a gimmicky Trick Room flinch sweeper as Dunsparce has a low base 70 Attack statPain Split- Inferior RoostAncient Power- Low damage, but Serene Grace boosts the chance of its really good affectAstonish- LOLAgility- Decent option over paralyzing, but you lose the parahax with the flinch haxMagic Coat- Neat move to protect against obvious statusSwagger & Psych Up- Paraflinchfusion hax with Attack boost? If you can pull it off, yesCoil- Excellent boosting move, always over Curse on non-Trick Room sets

Counters:
Dunsparce may have bulky HP, but Toxic will prevent it from flinching you to death. Eviolite Natu can't be paralyzed by Glare or Thunder Wave, but needs to look out for Bite and Body Slam. Steels wall Dunsparce all day. Sawk outspeeds and OHKO's Dunsparce... Dunsparce is really not that threatening. It's slow, so it needs to set up, and despite it decent move pool, can't really do that much. HP is the only thing Dunsparce has going for it, but past that, it's pretty weak and shouldn't pose much of a problem... Anything that can poison it before it flinch haxs you to death is pretty much a counter. If it's faster and carries a strong fighting type move, it can beat Dunsparce.

Glare Paralyzes any type, but at 70% accuracy, you'll be missing... a lot.

They actually buffed Glare in Gen 5, giving it 90% accuracy. For this reason, it's now Dunsparce's most reliable paralyzing tool, as it affects both Ground types (which Thunder Wave can't), and Ghost types (which Body Slam can't). Though the imperfect accuracy may let you down rarely, the fact of the matter is that the number of safe switch ins is very low, as most Pokemon don't particularly like being paralyzed.

Counters
Special Mentions

Gurdur - Eviolite Gurdur makes an interesting Counter to Dunsparce. It's slow to begin with, and thanks to Guts, paralyzing it can lead to destruction. Thanks to a STAB Mach Punch being fueled by Guts, he can easily pummel any Dunsparce attempting to Paraflinch into a million pieces, thanks to Priority. However, he has to watch out for the rare Zen Headbutt, although Eviolite's bulk can help counter this.

Golurk - If Dunsparce isn't using Glare, Golurk will screw it over all day. Its Ghost/Ground typing gives it an immunity to both Thunder Wave and Body Slam, meaning Dunsparce won't be paralyzing it without Glare. It outspeeds Dunsparce, has the bulk to take a hit or two if need be, and can destroy Dunsparce with either Drain Punch or Dynamic Punch (depending on if it's running Iron Fist or No Guard).

General Counters

Status - Anything that slaps a Status Effect on Dunsparce instantly screws it. Paraflinch requires time to stall, but Toxic and Burn's residual damage will turn stalling into Dunsparce's funeral. In addition, its already meager attack is cut by burn, causing it to deal pittance to just about anything. Paralyzing it shuts Dunsparce down completely; it's inherently slow, so once it's paralyzed, it won't be outspeeding much of anything. And obviously, sleep and freeze fully incapacitate it for a few turns.

Priority - It was mentioned with Gurdur, but priority attacks allow the user to circumvent paralysis's speed drop, thus screwing over any attempts to flinch. It doesn't help that Dunsparce's normal typing means it's weak to Mach Punch and Vacuum Wave, while having no resistances to any other priority moves.

Steel types - They may be slow and susceptible to Dunsparce's Paraflinching, but with their high defenses and resistances to all of his main flinching moves, Dunsparce absolutely cannot break them. They can stall out his PP without difficulty. Many carry status moves as well; if something like Probopass or Bastiodon manages to get off a Toxic or Thunder Wave on him, then Dunsparce is as good as screwed.

It may be hailed as a Paragon by the masses of 4Chan, but Dunsparce is really nothing special. Just a poor man's Jirachi, with no useful resistances, crummy stats, and a face only a mother could love.

Last edited by KillerDraco; 17th March 2013 at 4:36 PM.

SMod, One of the writers for the PotW, and someone you'll be hearing from often if you fail to read the rules

Dunsparce is the definition of missed potential. It has a very wide movepool, especially the moves that take advantage of Serene Grace. The problem is its low stats, combined with its pure Normal typing. Only one resistance, and it's an immunity to Ghost; only one weakness, but it's a very common attack type (especially among priority moves) in Fighting. It has the iconic base 100 hp and passable Attack, but crummy stats elsewhere; in particular it's so slow its own paralysis easily shuts it down. If only X and Y gave it an evolution...

Paraflincher
Leftovers Serene Grace Adamant
~ Thunder Wave
~ Rock Slide
~ Coil
~ Roost
144 HP / 252 Atk / 36 Def / 76 SpD
This is the best set Dunsparce can run. It aims to abuse the annoyance of paralysis, and flinching together. When a Dunsparce Rock Slides a paralyzed Pokemon, that Pokemon only has a 30% chance of moving that turn. Thunder Wave is the most reliable paralysis move out there, and while it does not hit Ground-types, you shouldn't be trying to flinch them to death with Rock Slide. Speaking of Rock Slide, that is Dunsparce's best flinching move, as there aren't any Pokemon immune to it. Roost lets you recover HP, and Coil boosts Attack, Defense, and Accuracy, all of which are important when trying to flinch something to death.

This set aims for dual-status, either using Glare, or Yawn to force the switch. When they do switch Flail now has 200 (iirc) STAB. So, it can actually cause damage, or you can Yawn, Force the switch then Glare the next opponent.

Paraflincher
Leftovers Serene Grace Adamant
~ Thunder Wave
~ Rock Slide
~ Coil
~ Roost
144 HP / 252 Atk / 36 Def / 76 SpD
This is the best set Dunsparce can run. It aims to abuse the annoyance of paralysis, and flinching together. When a Dunsparce Rock Slides a paralyzed Pokemon, that Pokemon only has a 30% chance of moving that turn. Thunder Wave is the most reliable paralysis move out there, and while it does not hit Ground-types, you shouldn't be trying to flinch them to death with Rock Slide. Speaking of Rock Slide, that is Dunsparce's best flinching move, as there aren't any Pokemon immune to it. Roost lets you recover HP, and Coil boosts Attack, Defense, and Accuracy, all of which are important when trying to flinch something to death.

Dunsparce should never, ever, ever, ever, ever, EVER use Run Away. It has no use in battles that aren't with Wild Pokemon; i.e., it's competitive usefulness is zilch. Serene Grace is the only reason to use Dunsparce at all, so if you're not using it, there's no reason to use Dunsparce over another Pokemon. Heck, without Serene Grace you might as well use Exploud if you're looking for a normal type special attacker (Not that I'm suggesting anyone use Exploud, it's just a comparison). Dunsparce lacks the power to utilize a Choice Scarf effectively. Base 65 special attack is just terrible; Choice Scarf is generally used if you have something that has a lot of natural power, but could benefit from the extra speed to secure Revenge Kills.

SMod, One of the writers for the PotW, and someone you'll be hearing from often if you fail to read the rules

Ryan's PokAnalysis
If only Dunsparce didn't have Thunder Wave. IF ONLY...but since it does, it can abuse its Ability Serene Grace to make opponents flinch until they die. Aside from that, its stats suck. At least it gets Coil to make its bad stats and equally bad move pool look somewhat impressive. If you want to use Dunsparce in Standard, spare yourself the embarrassment and don't, as you have far better choices, specifically Jirachi and Togekiss...but in Neverused Dunsparce is the ultimate troll.

AbilitiesSerene Grace: Doubles the likelihood of added effects happening. This is the reason why Dunsparce is such a troll. It causes so much flinching that it's hilarious.Run Away: improves your chances of getting away in the wild. Absolutely useless competitively speaking.Rattled: Bug-, Ghost- and Dark-type moves raise its Speed. Useless, though not as much so as Run Away. I guess if you REALLY wanted to sweep with Dunsparce, this would be how you'd do it...

If you see Dunsparce, prepare to get flinched to death. Paralyze first, ask questions later. Then you can go to town, flinching the opponent to death. Headbutt gets STAB but nothing is immune to Rock Slide. Coil further improves your capability of getting this job done, and Roost keeps you healthy. Flying snakes? That make sense to you? Yeah, me neither.

Other Options
Aqua Tail, Body Slam, Calm Mind, Curse, Earthquake, Gyro Ball, Magic Coat, Pursuit, its Special moves, Yawn, King's Rock.Aqua Tail can wipe Golurk off the map but isn't very useful otherwise.Body Slam's chance of paralysis shoots to 60% with Serene Grace, making it an offensive replacement for thunder Wave or Glare.Calm Mind allows Dunsparce to switch things up, using its better Defense to snag a boost for its special move pool.Curse is useful, but...you have Coil...don't use unless you're using Gyro Ball.Earthquake doesn't have an added effect to use, but it takes down Steels, which is useful.Gyro Ball isn't that good barring under Trick Room conditions. It does, however, hit hard with Curse.Magic Coat stops fools who try to use Dunsparce as set-up fodder for Rocks and Spikes.Pursuit slaps other fools who try to run from Dunsparce's paraflinching death trap.
Dunsparce has in my opinion one of the best special move pools in NU. If you wanna go that route, pack Calm Mind.Yawn I guess could go on a set with Pursuit / Coil / something else. Its job would mainly be to phase enemies immune to Thunder Wave.King's Rock gives you the option to forego leftovers recovery to up your flinch chance.

Double and Triple Battle Options
Under Trick Room conditions, Dunsparce can be a huge headache. Rock Slide causes excessive flinching and can help your TR sweeper step in and eliminate the helpless enemies. But that's all I can think of it doing. Outside of Trick Room, it might be able to throw some status around, assuming it survives. With 404 HP, it can survive a solid hit, take a couple spread moves. But you should just keep to Trick Room, where causing flinching over and over again with Rock Slide is what it does best.

Partners
Although not necessary, Trick Room allows Dunsparce to skip the paralysis altogether and start mayhem immediately. In that case, Beheeyem and Misdreavus help cover off weaknesses and give Dunsparce a few turns of Trick Room to be a totally nasty snake. You can also have paralyzing partners which again let Dunsparce get straight to work, boosting up with Coil while the opponent eagerly awaits the serpentine judgment that is to be dealt to it.

CountersGolurk. Golurk is a huge one, as somewhere between all of those flinches, it will pummel Dunsparce, being immune to Headbutt and resisting Rock Slide. Other than the ghost giant, anything that can take a round of paralysis and hit back hard enough can do the trick. For me, Rampardos comes to mind, even though it's more of a check. Alomomola can take its Headbutts and find somewhere in between flinches to use Toxic on Dunsparce - then it's really screwed. Ferroseed can take anything it can throw at it, not fearing paralysis, and sap away its health. Dunsparce is also revenge killed more easily than it should be, due to its Special Defense. Focus on that, and Dunsparce will be surprisingly easy to take down.

This set aims for dual-status, either using Glare, or Yawn to force the switch. When they do switch Flail now has 200 (iirc) STAB. So, it can actually cause damage, or you can Yawn, Force the switch then Glare the next opponent.

I would never in my life suggest using Special Dunsparce, especially Timid, without using Calm Mind at the very least. 229 Special Attack just isn't enough.

As for the second set, if you're looking to inflict double status, don't do it with a move pool like this. My favorite NU Pokemon, Stunfisk, does that much better.

Set dedicated to surprise your enemy. They think that your yellow spear would start parahaxing, but bam! It uses Agility (or Yawn, to make them switch, then Agility)! And then... well, if your Dunsparce survived, start spamming with Rock Slide/Headbutt. Roost/Coil is you choice.

The point is to Yawn and put your opponent to sleep, Roost the next turn incase you take damage, Nightmare will do some residual damage and Body Slam is your stabbed attacking move then when your opponent wakes up again roost off the damage then finally yawn, roost, nightmare, and then Finally Body Slam again rinse and repeat as most would say

I know what you're thinking; why run a special sweeper set on a Dunsparce? It's mostly a surprise set, because who'd expect a Dunsparce to sweep, especially sweep with special attacks? I only used Sp Atk since it has more coverage that way. So my goal here was to counter a wall, never lead with this (not that you'd ever lead with Dunsparce). Use Yawn, and Focus Sash survives a hit that you may take. Being that you're countering a wall, it may or may not switch out (dependent upon the foe's strategy). Either way, use Agility. Just use it as much as possible without dying. Now you have potential to sweep... well, within the NU tier, anyways. Thunderbolt or Flamethrower is your choice; I'd run Thunderbolt due to the amount of Water and Flying-Types in NU, but it's your call. The last slot has choices; If your opponent didn't get phased by Yawn, then Dream Eater is useful. Same with Hex. Trump Card is a good back-up move though; STAB and it's power increases as PP decreases, not to mention it's more reliable than hoping for Yawn not to phaze the opponent. Serene Grace is if you hope to Burn or Paralyze with the 3rd moveslot, but Rattled gives speed boosts which are important to a Sweeper, not to mention that you already have Yawn to induce status. It works well in a double-battle with a partner such as Haunter that can counter Dunsparce's weaknesses and use Mean Look to trap the victim.

All around, it's a pretty risky set and can be easily countered, but it's something different than what everyone else has been posting.

Well I have to say I don't use dunsparce a lot but hey dunsparce with a kings rock serene grace beneficial nature with glare and some physical attacks and your talking about a nasty enemy if its your friend or a great pokemon for your team I just don't use them because there so hard to train the only one I had high hopes for was the one in pokemon colosseum still trying to make it have serene grace by saving catching re battle and if not right reset and repeat well there's my best dunsparce I think you can get.

If you really want to abuse Serene Grace, you should be using Jirachi or Togekiss. If you're not in the OU tier or UU tier, then let Dunsparce loose.
To say Dunsparce has a large movepool is a bit of an understatement. In fact, it's absolutely massive. Since this is a low tier Pokemon, some of the more gimmicky options become passable, as long as you focus on Serene Grace abuse.

ParaFlinch. While not the deadliest, it turns people bald from the amount of hair pulling it causes. Glare is an awesome Paralysis spreader. Despite the imperfect (though very good) accuracy, the only Pokemon safe from Paralysis are Pokemon with Limber, a very uncommon ability. If accuracy is an issue for some strange reason, go ahead and use Thunder Wave. Headbutt is your STAB move and has 60% flinch rate after Serene Grace. Bite hits those Ghosts that laugh at Headbutt. Stealth Rock is a generally awesome move, but so is Roost. Make your pick.
Before I continue, can someone explain to me how Dunsparce can use Roost? Well, Pelliper can use Shock Wave and Dugtrio can learn Aerial Ace, so I guess it isn't the STRANGEST thing ever.

Got Pokémon X. Intend to get either Omega Ruby or Alpha Sapphire.
No info about my Friend Safari.
Vivillon Pattern: Polar
Looking for nicknamed, shiny, and/or have a hidden ability in GTS and may battle at anytime.
If interested, send a private message with your ID #.

Dunsparce should never, ever, ever, ever, ever, EVER use Run Away. It has no use in battles that aren't with Wild Pokemon; i.e., it's competitive usefulness is zilch. Serene Grace is the only reason to use Dunsparce at all, so if you're not using it, there's no reason to use Dunsparce over another Pokemon. Heck, without Serene Grace you might as well use Exploud if you're looking for a normal type special attacker (Not that I'm suggesting anyone use Exploud, it's just a comparison). Dunsparce lacks the power to utilize a Choice Scarf effectively. Base 65 special attack is just terrible; Choice Scarf is generally used if you have something that has a lot of natural power, but could benefit from the extra speed to secure Revenge Kills.

Honestly, I don't know what to say about this guy. He's kind of lackluster in, well, everything. His Attack stat is decent at best, and his other stats are lackluster. I don't think you should ever really use Dunsparce (except maybe to annoy people in NU), because it just doesn't have the stats to survive almost anything (See: Low Speed and Defenses, all Fighting types)

Ah Dunsparce, the pinnacle of wasted potential. Great movepool and ability, but horrible stats to back it up. If gamefreak ever decides to make an evolution of it, it probably be one of the best Pokemon out there. But for now, it's gonna have to sit there and derp.

Dunce people frustrates other people!... That is how this pokemon roll... Dunsparce is not however a stupid pokemon (But it would be much smarter having better stats), it has an amazing movepool and an ability envied by so many pokemon is standard battles. Dunsparce have stat repartition that makes most of it's movepool unusable options and a waisted potential... SAD!

HP is very good and just enough for dunsparce to spread some chaos. Attack and defense are both slightly below average but coil can be handy in buffing them up. Special attack and special defense are slightly lower that it's physical counterparts. Speed is low meaning that dunsparce will probably have to take a hit first!

Serene grace is the selling point of dunsparce... With a various moves to abuse it with, dunsparce quicly become usable even with it's lack of good stats. If given the chance, dunsparce will be a pain in the opponent back.

Dunsparce Derping Dreadfully on Da battlefield!
Dunsparce@leftovers or muscle band
Ability: Serene grace or run away (just kidding)
Evs: 252 HP/ 252 ATT/ 4 DEF
nature: +ATT/-Sp ATT
Moveset:
-Body slam
-Rock slide
-Roost/ Thunder wave/ glare/ Coil/ Stealth rock/ Bite
This is how it works.... With serene grace body slam has 60% of inflicting paralysis and rock slide will flinch 60% of the time.... Meaning that para-flinch hax will mostly make your opponent rip his hair off of his head! To complete the set, choose 2 of the following moves:
-Roost will make you regain HP and live longer for haxing again and again if there were some hair left on your opponent's head.
-Thunder wave will paralyse ghost type pokemon not named golurk. It is more reliable than glare and the better option for me!
-Glare will paralyse golurk notably but one pokemon does not justify the loss of major accuracy!
-Coil makes dunsparce stronger and bulkier and capable of taking more hits.
-While not the best user of stealth rocks but it's still good move when HP is low!
-Bite is an alternative for rock slide to hit psychic types hard but does not justify the major loss of power!

Dunsparce worst enemies are steel type pokemon as there is nothing it can do to them especially steelix with that monstrous defense stat! Golurk stops it cold and fighting types ruins everything especially mach punch users!